Among the many tasks necessary to create a successful new world order, after the events of the past several years in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, it will be necessary to transfer ownership rights in substantial portions of some countries' vast state-owned capital stock into private hands. In such countries, as well as others currently lacking effective owner shares markets, it may be desirable to develop policies and tools for operating such owner shares markets. Methods, tools and tasks necessary to accomplish such an enormous economic undertaking, without causing socially destructive economic dislocation is the subject of intense current research.
It is a general goal of the present invention to provide computerized market tools usable in countries which may be lacking market infrastructure. It is a more specific goal of the present invention to make available computerized market tools able to support any privatization policy chosen by government policy makers, including making possible the universal distribution policy outlined below.
The struggle of newly democratic nations to replace central planning with increased personal autonomy parallels a comparable struggle in the field of education..sup.1 While the labels and nuances of the debate have evolved over time,.sup.2 the alternative paradigms are fundamentally analogous: a centralized and depersonalized hierarchy versus a decentralized and personalized heterarchy..sup.3 The combination of democracy and capitalism can be viewed as a substituted social contract for communism. This is an historically ambitious paradigm shift which is contingent upon a newly democratic society learning new practices which amount to a restructuring of its socio-cultural knowledge. FNT .sup.1 "Looking at the Soviet experience [of Perestroika] gives us a metaphor to talk about why [a Band-Aid fix] doesn't work. For stable change a deeper restructuring is needed--or else the large parts of the system you didn't change will just bring the little parts you did change back into line. We have to seek out the deeper structures on which the system is based. On this level, too, the Soviet case provides an analogy: for the same categorization--hierarchical-centralized-depersonalized vs. heterarchical-decentralized-personal--applies to the organization of education, to the structure of the curriculum, and to a deeper underlying epistemology. It offers a handle to grasp the conditions for change. Moreover, it suggests a close tie between educational change and the winds of change that seem to be blowing in many other domains in many parts of the globe." Seymour Papert, "Perestroika and Epistemological Politics", MIT Media Laboratory, Epistemology and Learning Group Memo No. 4, p. 12 (1990). FNT .sup.2 "Progressivism" was championed by John Dewey to advance beyond the rigid regimentation of "traditionalism"; J. Dewey, "Experience and Education" 17-23 (1938). Later, Piaget promoted "constructivism" in which novices are provided settings to build their knowledge in ways meaningful to them, as opposed to "instructionism" in which experts transfer information to novices; see E. Ackermann, "Constructivism and Transference of Meaning Through Form" 12, to appear in L. Steffe (ed.), "Constructivism in Education" (1992). FNT .sup.3 S. Papert, "Perestroika and Epistemological Politics", MIT Media Laboratory Epistemology and Learning Group Memo No. 4, p. 12 (1990).
Challenges abound. The gap between rigid central planning and capitalism is profound. Central planning took root over decades of social engineering, which amounted to dogmatic instructionism enforced by the apparatus of the state. The danger is that the desired knowledge restructuring will not occur quickly enough to prevent reversion to communism, diversion to fascism, or simply nuclear-tipped instability.
Perhaps it is useful to consider several novel policy approaches to facilitate the transition. The Stock Market Unit basket of enterprise stock is a financial instrument designed to simplify and expedite privatization, which is a key prerequisite to capitalism. The PRIVATIZE!.TM. (a new system to achieve universal privatization) system is a computerized marketplace tailored for newly democratic nations to support Stock Market Units and other appropriate financial instruments. PRIVATIZATION PLANNER.TM. (a system to help plan for privatization) is a collaborative knowledge base designed to support customization of the PRIVATIZE!.TM. (a new system to achieve universal privatization) system, and formulation of privatization policy in general.
These three policy tools are manipulable "objects-to-think-with",.sup.4 intended to facilitate the transition to capitalism. The Stock Market Unit can be available as tangible script in the form of privatization vouchers by means of appropriate regulations. PRIVATIZE!.TM. (a new system to achieve universal privatization) represents a concrete system in which: 1) a citizen obtains a receipt for tendering a privatization voucher to bid for another asset, 2) after which regional centers aggregate transactions onto diskettes or tape cartridges, 3) to physically transmit to a central computer facility, 4) for execution of transactions and the generation of appropriate records for the citizen or his or her financial institution, 5) from which the citizen can withdraw currency to spend on consumer goods. In other words, it is a system capable of physically transforming a voucher into consumer purchases via a computer marketplace. Likewise, a learner can participate in the creation of an external, shareable knowledge base using PRIVATIZATION PLANNER.TM. (a system to help plan for privatization) in the spirit of constructionism..sup.5 FNT .sup.4 S. Papert, "Mindstorms" 11 (1980). FNT .sup.5 See E. Ackermann, supra note 2 at 12.
A hierarchy of agents must learn the authentic activities of capitalism..sup.6 This hierarchy includes: individual citizens such as peasants, enterprise workers, enterprise management and policy makers; organizations such as enterprises or government agencies; communities of policy analysts.sup.7 and entire societies. FNT .sup.6 Authentic activities are those "coherent, meaningful, and purposeful activities" which amount to "the ordinary practices" of a particular domain. J. Brown, A. Collins, P. Duguid, "Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning", Educational Researcher 32, 34 (January-February, 1989). FNT .sup.7 Such communities can coalesce into effective collaborative knowledge building communities without evolving into transnational epistemic communities in which analysts only secondarily identify with their own nation's perspective.
At a sufficiently general level, cognitive development has common themes which cut across these hierarchical levels. The definition of intelligence as "adaptation, or the ability to maintain a balance between stability and change . . . ".sup.8 seems applicable to all levels. Also generally applicable would appear the categorization of knowledge into concrete, logico-mathematical and social-arbitrary..sup.9 Individual ontological development has even been viewed as a recapitulation of societal phylogenetic development..sup.10 FNT .sup.8 E. Ackermann. "From Decontextualized to Situated Knowledge: Revisiting Piaget's Water-Level Experiment", MIT Media Laboratory Epistemology and Learning Group Memo No. 5, p. 4 (1990). FNT .sup.9 See Devries, Kohlberg, "Programs of Early Education: The Constructivist View" 20-24 (1987). FNT .sup.10 S. Papert, supra note 4 at 163. But see A. Giddens, "The Constitution of Society" 239 (1984).
However, important distinctions between hierarchical levels should be drawn, even beyond the obvious differences in time scales and scope of knowledge. In particular, an overall system need not behave like its individual components..sup.11 For example, individuals have a powerful affective component of learning..sup.12 Organizations can be "jump-started" with social-arbitrary knowledge such as laws and commercial practices much more quickly than individuals mature. A case can also be made that even though a society more or less effectively incorporates all the concrete and logico-mathematical knowledge of its component organizations and individuals, its social-arbitrary knowledge plays a still greater role. FNT .sup.11 M. Resnick, "Overcoming the Centralized Mindset: Towards an Understanding of Emergent Phenomena", MIT Media Laboratory Epistemology and Learning Group Memo No. 11, p. 1 (1990). FNT .sup.12 S. Papert, supra note 4 at vii-viii.
Knowledge restructuring involves the change of a conceptual system along a fundamental dimension such as the domain of accounted-for phenomena, the nature of acceptable explanations, and even core concepts..sup.13 This is a useful framework to explore the social transformation of a society from communism to capitalism and democracy. If the learning entity is taken to be the society itself, the classic applications of knowledge restructuring such as paradigm shifts and education in a sense converge. In analyzing the degree of change along the different dimensions, the domains of application seem similar: the economy and politics. However, acceptable explanations change dramatically. For example, government-as-central-planner is jettisoned, and private property becomes a legitimate and recognized stimulus for individual initiative and macroeconomic growth. Fundamental changes also occur in core concepts, such as the new notion of profit as a desirable objective. FNT .sup.13 S. Carey, "Cognitive Science and Science Education", 41 (No. 10) American Psychologist 1123, 1126 (October 1986).
Knowledge restructuring at the societal level in the domains of capitalism and democracy can be associated with a novice-expert shift by a newly democratic nation. According to the Soviet educational psychologist Lev Vygotsky, such learning requires comprehensible interaction with an expert (such as a stable and successful democracy), but within the novice's zone of proximal development..sup.14 The serious concerns about the feasibility of a successful transition to capitalism and democracy effectively question whether those objectives are within the zone of proximal development of all formerly communist nations. FNT .sup.14 The zone of proximal development is the zone within the novice's potential to achieve, given interaction with a suitable expert. R. DeVillar, C. Faltis, "Computers and Cultural Diversity" 10-12 (1990).
This concept of a novice-expert shift should be broadened to include a multidimensional continuum of expertise. The societies of the world each have missing or maladaptive knowledge or behavior in different areas, so that even the "experts" are capable of learning through interaction. In addition, there are multiple role models for newly democratic nations. For example, capitalism in the U.S. has a distinctly different character than in Germany. Thus, newly democratic nations are in a position to exercise their right (arising from sovereignty and self-determination) to direct their own learning process by selecting policies consistent with their heritage (where they've been) and their objectives (where they want to go).
The role of "expert" societies in facilitating knowledge restructuring for newly democratic nations can be viewed from several perspectives. Even the example of experts makes available a directed goal and encouragement about what is possible. More actively, the experts can foster a process of enculturation in which newly democratic nations learn the ordinary practices of capitalism and democracy through authentic activities which are coherent, meaningful and purposeful..sup.15 This is achieved by social interaction amounting to cognitive apprenticeship, rather than instructionism transmission of decontextualized information chunks..sup.16 For example, according IMF observer status to Russia creates a valuable learning opportunity through legitimate peripheral participation..sup.17 FNT .sup.15 See J. Brown, A. Collins, P. Duguid, "Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning", Educational Research 32, 33-34 (January-February 1989). FNT .sup.16 Id. at 37. FNT .sup.17 See id. at 40.
These concepts can also be applied at the organizational or individual levels of the hierarchy. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development is a multinational organization capable of making expertise and resources available to the privatization boards in newly democratic nations, which are major generators of the privatization policies and regulations amounting to updated social-arbitrary knowledge. Enterprises in newly democratic nations learn through expert consultants advising on authentic activities such as international trade or financial reporting. Of course, societal or organizational learning must also reflect individual learning, such as achieved by business or academic exchange programs.
Besides encouraging meaningful interaction, the west can accelerate the transition to democracy and capitalism with appropriate "objects-to-think-with." These can help a newly democratic nation across the zone of proximal development either by reducing the effective "distance" or by increasing the effective "speed." For example, a financial instrument such as Stock Market Units and concrete support by a computerized marketplace like PRIVATIZE!.TM. (a new system to achieve universal privatization) provide basic goals within closer reach than comprehensively sophisticated real-time marketplaces in the west. And even such basic goals can be achieved more quickly by an effective knowledge building community, as supported by a collaborative knowledge base such as PRIVATIZATION PLANNER.TM. (a system to help plan for privatization).
A collaborative knowledge base is the product of a knowledge building community which constructs patterns of knowledge through sociocultural activity, while renewing itself through ongoing apprenticeship..sup.18 Education has typically involved the assignment of tasks or the orchestration of a novice's development..sup.19 In contrast, a knowledge building community helps novices "formulate their own goals, do their own activating of prior knowledge, ask their own questions, direct their own inquiry, and do their own monitoring of comprehension.".sup.20 In the context of national self-determination, this is naturally the appropriate way to support efforts at privatization. As in science, collaboration is mutually beneficial as the knowledge base grows cumulatively, if not exponentially. Therefore, it is highly desirable for privatization policy analysts in newly democratic nations and established democracies to coalesce into an effective knowledge building community. FNT .sup.18 See M. Scardamalia, C. Bereiter, "An Architecture for Collaborative Knowledge Building" 2, in E. De Corte, M. Linn, H. Mandl, L. Verschaffel (eds.), "Computer-Based Learning Environments and Problem Solving", NATO-ASI Series F.: Computer and Systems Sciences (in press). FNT .sup.19 M. Scardamalia, C. Bereiter, "Higher Levels of Agency for Children in Knowledge Building: A Challenge for the Design of New Knowledge Media", 1 (No. 1) Journal of Learning Sciences 37, 38-39 (1991). FNT .sup.20 Id. at 39.
A knowledge building community of privatization policy analysts can be promoted by PRIVATIZATION PLANNER.TM. (a system to help plan for privatization), a collaborative knowledge base generator able to support the systematic formulation of privatization policy. It is initialized with a hierarchy of topics containing pages of information. This knowledge base is distributed by the system coordinator to privatization policy analysts by diskette, for them to evaluate and comment on its organization and content or propose changes.
For example, the first menu of topics includes "Methods of Share Distribution", "Current Status in Selected Newly Democratic Nations", and "Privatize!(tm)." The analyst could choose the third topic, select the "Customization" subtopic, and then explore whether PRIVATIZE!.TM. (a new system to achieve universal privatization) should be customized to support shareholder enterprise votes.
At this point the analyst has a variety of options before moving on to another topic. He or she can respond to questions embedded in the information pages (in this case, whether the feature should be included and why or why not). The analyst can also evaluate and comment on the presentation of the topic, and thereby influence whether or not it will be retained into the next generation. Another option is to insert proposed new pages of information or even additional related subtopics. The proposed additions can also contain embedded questions, and will also be subject to evaluation and comments.
The system coordinator compiles all responses and makes comments available to the relevant authors for review. After either manually or algorithmically determining the "best" versions and alternates of the knowledge base from the evaluations provided by the analysts, the next generation is distributed and undergoes another cycle of review.
Design choices reflect the objective to achieve a clean, simple and cost-effective system. While there is a login sequence to identify responders, security is provided by transmission of diskettes to and from known groups ineligible to sign with other users' ids. While proposed topics and pages of information are available to all users for review, comments are only made available to the relevant authors. This preserves the independence of future comments and simplifies processing, but at the expense of intellectual interaction. The algorithms to "score" the topics and pages of information are straightforward functions of quality and quantity, subject to parameter-tuning or even manual override in practice. Finally, pop-up windows for simultaneous topics, help screens or glossaries may be desirable.
There are broad parallels between progressive developments on the world stage and in the educational arena. The common theme is greater individual autonomy and less hierarchical control. The transition to democracy and capitalism can be seen as a restructuring of societal knowledge, amounting to a novice-expert shift requiring basic enculturation by authentic activities.
This process can be facilitated by appropriate "objects-to-think-with", including Stock Niarket Units, the PRIVATIZE!.TM. (a new system to achieve universal privatization) computerized marketplace and the PRIVATIZATION PLANNER.TM. (a system to help plan for privatization) collaborative knowledge base. Stock Market Units provide an expedient and fair way to transfer ownership in a basket of large state enterprises. PRIVATIZE!.TM. (a new system to achieve universal privatization) transforms vouchers into increased personal consumption through a physical chain which includes a computerized marketplace. PRIVATIZATION PLANNER.TM. (a system to help plan for privatization) supports constructivism as an external, shareable collaborative knowledge base. Perhaps the greatest value of straightforward and legitimate policies is their potential to accelerate change in a world where patient tolerance of learners progressing at a natural pace may be inconsistent with the avowed objectives of capitalism and democracy.